Defensive Training Rounds

Ask firearms retailers what drives the majority of sales in their store and odds are they will tell you handguns for self-defense and the ammunition needed for practice. More and more people—and increasingly women—are taking an active role in protecting themselves and their families both at home and when out on the town. For many people, the need to actually defend themselves will hopefully never arise, but owning a firearm and most importantly, knowing how to safely and skillfully use it, provides peace of mind and a sense of self-reliance that is as American as our country itself.

For many of these new shooters, however, making that first purchase and knowing what ammunition to buy can be intimidating. Even for many veteran gunowners, determining the best choice of defensive ammo for their firearm can be a daunting decision. With so many options on store shelves, many simply resort to what a friend says works in their gun, looks to what other family members have always used or train with one type of ammunition because it is cheaper and carry another, even though the two may perform entirely different when fired from the gun. Fortunately, Winchester now offers W Train & Defend, a unique line of ammo designed to provide shooters with a load for training that is ballistically matched to one for defensive purposes. Introduced just this year, W Train & Defend is available in .380 Auto, 9mm Luger, .38 Special and .40 S&W.

Although the new loads are helpful for any shooter, Winchester recognizes that a lot of new shooters today are indeed women. For some companies, they might recognize this trend and simply slap some pink on an ammo box to cater to the new consumer. Not Winchester.

Keeping in line with their philosophy to continually develop and refine products that help educate, as well as better serve, consumers, the Big Red W took their time in developing ballistically matched loads that perform the same whether training or used in a defensive situation. The loads share the same muzzle velocities, bullet weights and lower felt recoil to feel the same in the hand and hit at the same point of aim when fired.

The training rounds, packaged in boxes clearly marked with a prominent T for “training load,” are made with lead-free primers, brass shell cases and full metal jacket bullets, which are best for targets. The packaging on the “defensive loads” are marked with a D. These rounds are made using nickel-plated shell cases and packed with hollow point bullets to provide significant stopping power.

W Train & Defend marks a revolutionary step in helping shooters concerned about home defense and seeking to be well-trained take the guesswork out of buying the right ammunition that will serve every purpose.

Photo courtesy of NSSF.

Share

One Response to “Defensive Training Rounds”

I primarily use Winchester already, but this will give additional piece of mind for my 9mm. That said, are there plans to bring this to other calibers? I would imagine a lot of us will want a .357 or .45 ACP as the other two common defensive calibers not mentioned.